Sunday, 25 November 2012

Reading Appendix N: Shadow Kingdoms

Starting in 2004, Wildside Press began to publish all of Robert E. Howard’s work from Weird Tales, sequentially as it
appeared, under the sobriquet of “The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard”. To round out the volume, they include a few
other pieces of Howard’s poetry, which were published elsewhere. Shadow Kingdoms is the first volume,
and contains 24 short stories and poems.

If you have read much of what I’ve written,
you will know that I am a fan of Howard’s writing, so I find it a distinct
pleasure to have a volume that shows how he grew as a writer over a relatively
short period of time.

Spear and Fang is a
caveman story. Stories about cave men
are actually well represented in Appendix N, including Manly Wade Wellman’s excellent Hok
the Mighty stories and a lot of work by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Howard’s
Spear
and Fang is not going to displace the writing of these other writers
here, but we are at the dawn of Howard’s career as well as at the dawn of man,
so we might forgive the fact that he is not yet at the height of his powers.

In the Forest of Villefore is a werewolf story. Again,
not a perfect story, but it does have one cool idea to steal for your
game: slain as a man, the spirit of the
werewolf would haunt the protagonist forever.
It is not enough to slay the werewolf; the beast must be slain in its
bestial form. Howard actually goes into
this more in the next story, Wolfshead, in which his strong
powers as a storyteller begin to truly come to the fore. These two stories, together, can be used by
the aspiring judge to craft a werewolf adventure that players will long
remember.

The next story, The Lost Race, has yet
another take on the werewolf legend…one which might work better as a lead-in to
an adventure, or a portion of an adventure, but which is probably not strong
enough to be the major driving force. In
a way, this story is a step back from Wolfshead.

Three poems follow: The Song of the Bats, The
Ride of Falume, and The Riders of Babylon. Howard is a fairly good poet already, and
these are worth reading, although there is no direct gaming material
herein. The Song of the Bats, in
particular, might be used as a handout for another adventure, were the judge so
inclined (and thanks to Sir Robilarfor the idea) .

The Dream Snake would
be tough to turn into an adventure, but worthwhile if done well. One element of horror that does not often
make its way into adventure gaming is forcing the PCs to wait before they can
deal with a threat. Another is the threat
that a single character must face alone, even if he surrounds himself with
other. In The Dream Snake, a
character dreams of a snake coming to slay him, which, it is implied, eventually
happens. One could see this as a punishment
for defying a Patron of some sort (and there is one perfect for this in the
upcoming Angels, Daemons, & Beings Between sourcebook), or as the
result of a curse. I made use of the
general idea in a short encounter submitted to Crawl! Fanzine, which may
eventually see publication, which I called “At Least He Had Guts!”. When you read it, you will know the
inspiration.

The Hyena is a great
story, marred only by the racial politics of the time it was written. Senecoza,
the festish-man in the story, would make a fantastic recurrent villain in
the DCC rpg…or in any other. This is
another glimpse of the stronger writing which Howard would later produce, and
it is amazing to see him writing like this so early on. It makes one wonder, had Howard not taken his
life, what he would eventually have been able to produce.

The poem, Remembrance, follows,
with its theme of reincarnation and being haunted by the misdeeds of past
lives. Reincarnation is another major
Appendix N theme, appearing in Howard,
Burroughs, Merritt, and others. Moorcock’s “Eternal Champion” cycle hinges upon it.

Sea Curse is a story
about a curse, obviously, which includes a damned ship that would be at home in
a DCC campaign.

A poem, The Gates of Ninevah,
follows.

And then the first Solomon Kane story, Red Shadows, makes its
appearance. There are a lot of elements
to steal here for a weird fiction campaign.
When the PCs wrong another, the idea of the pursuing avenging angel in
mortal form, their own Solomon Kane, is more than appropriate. The bandit leader, Le Loup, is a great character that I have made use of in my own
online Barrowmaze campaign (using DCC rules). The
Black God, N’Longa, and the
interaction between the gorilla hunter and the gorilla (itself a revenge story
that parallels that of Solomon Kane and Le Loup) are worth emulating. There are, again, racial elements in this
story that 21st Century readers may well find offensive, but if you
strip those elements, there is much of use to the aspiring judge herein.

Two more poems follow: The Harp of Alfred and Easter
Island.

Skulls in the Stars is
another Solomon Kane story, which could easily be adapted to a role-playing
scenario. The idea of ghosts and spirits
returning to avenge those who wrongfully murder them for gold is one that ought
to give pause to a PC or two....

Two more poems, Crete and Moon
Mockery, follow.

Then we have a third Solomon Kane story, Rattle
of Bones, which could be easily adapted to an effective role-playing
game scenario. It would be fairly easy
to enlarge upon the theme – a murdered sorcerer whose bones are chained in a
room, a murderous innkeeper, and an unrecognized enemy as a
fellow-wayfarer.

The next poem, Forbidden Magic, contains
some imagery of use to the DCC judge.

The Shadow Kingdom is
the first Kull story, which
introduces the serpent people who masquerade
as men. This ancient rivalry between
humans and reptilian humanoids is echoes not only in later Howard work, but in
other Appendix N writers, such as the Dragon
Kings of Lin Carter’s Thongor stories. Howard’s is the original and the best. Consider also that, at some point, players
will want their characters to be something more than mere freebooters. They will not want to merely explore the
world, but to order it to their liking. In
this respect, the Kull and King Conan stories of Robert E. Howard
can point the aspiring judge to elements that can make ruling as much an
adventure as wandering the lands.

The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune is the second Kull story, which deals with mirrors that are both
magical portals (for visions, and perhaps more) and a trap. A good story, and a good element for a DCC
adventure, but not enough action for an adventure by itself.

Two more poems round out the
collection: The Moor Ghost (which may
point to an interesting encounter, but is largely a reprisal of Skulls
in the Stars), and Red Thunder.

Overall, this is a fine collection for reading,
and a good collection for garnering game ideas.
The titles of Howard’s works are inspirational even if you don’t
consider the stories and poems that follow.
In this collection, we see one of the greatest pulp writers of all time
first approaching his craft, and rise quickly to its mastery. This volume is very much recommended.

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